Adventures Abroad: Studies and Life in Lyon

Oops, realised today that I haven't posted in a month...

Well, here is my adventures in Avignon with Meg the weekend of Saturday September 28, 2013:

I know this has nothing to do with Avignon, but I on Thursday night I was looking at WWII propaganda posters with my host brothers and we found this one.

http://media.nara.gov/media/images/17/14/17-1346a.gif

We couldn’t stop laughing. What was great was that at first, Ianis didn’t recognize that it was a cartoon drawing of Hitler, which made us laugh even more.

Now for the weekend trip:

I left early Friday morning to catch a 9:20 train out of the SNCF train station at Part-Dieu. As far as train stations go, I don’t think it was planned out very well. First of all, you have to pay 50 centimes (cents) to use the bathroom. So not cool. Secondly, the platforms on which the trains will be arriving are not easily at the passengers’ disposition. At 30^th Street Station, the board with all the train announcements is right in the middle of the station with plenty of room to wait (not necessarily seats). At the Part-Dieu train station, the board is just on the inside of the main entrance with only enough room for thirty people to see the board (and that’s not thirty people comfortably). For a train station that has platforms that go up to the letter J, you think there would be a more efficient manner in disseminating information. Oh, and there’s no place to sit.

This is my morning face.

Anyway, Meg (http://meginlyon.wordpress.com/) and I took a train heading toward Marseilles, which took about two hours and twenty minutes. It wasn’t too bad. I read a lot. What was strange was that at no point were we asked for our tickets. That is kind of frustrating because it made me think that I didn’t need to buy a ticket in the first place. I know there are random checks, but still, it’s annoying.

We arrived at the local train station right on time and found ourselves face to face with the historic walled city. The whole city is literally surrounded by a wall about 20 feet high. That being said, it’s an incredibly tiny town. Like, I can walk from one end of the town to the other. Food was our top priority. After stopping by the Office du Tourisme, which is a great idea and all cities should have one, Meg and I checked our map and headed in some sort of direction. We found a small open plaza with a bunch of restaurants at which we could eat. We both ordered sandwiches and hot chocolate. The hot coco was amazing! It was much richer than normal Swiss Miss (Don't get me wrong, I love me some Swiss Miss) but not overly thick, like melted chocolate. In short, it was delicious and perfect for the dreary day. We also had very yummy sandwiches, but that's not surprising because pretty much all sandwiches are yummy here.

Hot chocolate from the heavens

Meg being a cutie

SANDWICHES

After lunch, we went to a little art museum called Musée Angladon, a house turned museum. It was really cool and unique! The best part was that our tickets were only three euros for students, score! Thank you Europe.

Jean Emile Laboureur Femme sur une terrasse

Tsugharu L. Foujita Auto-Portrait and Portrait de Madame Foujita

Edgar Degas La Repasseuse

These next few pictures are where the people who collected all the art.

No touchy!

After the art museum, we went exploring. We wandered around the Palais de Papes which is this ginormous castle/fortress thing where the Popes lived when the pope was in France, but more on that later. By the Palais, there is a garden/park area that connects to the palais and the outer city wall. It was really cool and just a nice place to chill for a bit. It has a great view of the town.

This is George

If you zoom in, there is a very well placed leaf...

We wanted to try to visit the free museums while they were still open so we stopped by the natural history museum. It was a little disappointing but the taxidermy was fantastic. It was neat to walk around the non-touristy parts to see how the real Avginonais live. It’s always curious to the real inhabitants of tourist town. Also, found this in a vintage store for Heather.

Oh hai!

So good! Of course now I don't remember what the flavors were.

After our walk about town, Meg and I went back to the hostel for happy hour before going to dinner. In the bar/salon/reception area, we saw one of the other inhabitants of our six person room, an Australian woman named Carmen. She was super nice. We also met Macy and Julia, two girls our age from Kentucky and Germany, respectively. We all chatted for a bit before going out to dinner. Macy, Julia, Meg, and I went to this Italian restaurant close by for really good and reasonably priced food. I had four cheese ravioli. (: From all of our walking around, Meg and I were pretty exhausted so we just went back to the room. It was only about 11 o’clock so we were talking at you know, at a normal volume for like 15 minutes when we hear some sort of snort/breathy sound from one of the bed. Oops, someone was sleeping. And then at like 4:30 in the morning, these people

Carmen and all the firefighters that showed up in our hostel (Pop'Hostel)

The next morning, we woke up early to go to markets which started at 9. Unfortunately, we didn’t remember that here, starting at 9, really means 9:30 or 10. Or was it 8? I don’t remember, but the important part is that no one was awake. It was really cool just to wander with no intention because you know, not all those who wander are lost.

Outside wall

For lunch, we went to this restaurant called New Ground. It was traditional Provençal dishes with spice flavorings from around the world. Oh lord, help. It was delicious. And there was dessert too. Fabulous.

We went to the Palais des Papes, which was the palace for the popes when they weren’t in Rome (1309-1378). This place is huge!!! Both in terms of land area and height. It’s all made out of stone and different parts were added and removed not only while it was in use by the popes, but also its history including today. One thing I learned from the audio guides (which you hold up to your ear. Ew. No head phones and I was kind of not okay with putting a communal object close to my face. Also, if someone had their volume up to loud, the whole room could hear it, because castles tend to echo), was that a lot of the castle has been reconstructed. I guess I’m spoiled from Eastern State’s policy of “semi-ruin” where the story of the building through time is visible and also important to understand the building in terms of space and time. In France, they are not too keen on that idea and prefer to restore the building to its “original” state. I don’t know; everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Also, there’s the tourist factor, but I digress. Enjoy some pictures!

Oh look, a studded door!

For hiding secret pope things

Original painting decor of the room, which was later whitewashed

More hiding places for lot's of holy money!

A little courtyard at the back

Huge feast hall

Kitchen...

...with giant flue

There were artist installations in the Palais. This was about princess and the pea

OMG THERE WAS A CAT! He was chilling on the precipice of doom, in between the plexiglass and the staircase

On the roof!

France is really into giant golden Marys

Hogwarts Great Staircase

And the Great Hall

And then we went to the Pont d’Avignon! Well, we couldn’t find it at first because the signs were for Pont Saint-Bénezet, which is the actual name of the bridge. This bridge is super old! Also, I was totally expecting a full bridge, but it was only about 100 yards long. We found out that it was actually 21 arches when it was built and was a true engineering feat. Unfortunately, over time, the river moved land and sediment, creating new land formations and the rough waters destroyed a lot of (and by that I mean most of) the bridge so only 4 arches remain. Once I learned that, I was significantly more impressed by the remnants of the once colossal bridge.